January 31, 2011

Fangraphs on Gordon Beckham

the kid was beating the ball into the ground roughly 50% of the time during the first two or three months of the [2010] season. Once he made an adjustment and started getting more loft on the ball, the production increased considerably. This shouldn’t be a surprise, The Cell is a hitter friendly park especially for right-handed hitters (137 HR, 104 wOBA park factor for RHB according to StatCorner). Park dimensions won’t matter too much when when you’re hitting the ball into the ground, just how long the groundskeeper keeps the grass. Beckham’s ground ball rate in 2009 (40.4%) was right in line with his rate from the last three months of 2010 (~40.3%), and the production was similar as well. …